“Why Do Big Name leaders and CEOs Mess Up?” was the question I was asked at a recent leadership seminar. The seminar focused on the energy zones of leadership and the leader’s assets. “Why do so many known leaders and CEOs mess up their health or end up with ethical or relationship breakdowns?” the executive asked.

H.E.R breakdowns (breakdowns in Health, Ethics & Relationships) are often given the simplistic explanation that it happens because of the stresses of the job. The deeper answer is that the CEOs involved did not internalize the growth and development of their responsibility in a whole and balanced way.

The voltage analogy comes handy. When a CEO takes on a 500 volt responsibility but only grows and develops internally to contain 200 or 300 volts the capacity gap leads to a breakdown. Health, Ethical and Relationships (HER) collapse are symptoms of the incongruence. You must grow on the inside to make the outer development safe and stable. If done wisely, your development on the outside helps accelerate the inward journey.

In our recent KEY we explored the Four Ways to Grow. The best accelerated growth and development may have aspects of all four paths. You have to balance the external development with the internal growth. As you evolve in managing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses so must you gain a deeper insight about your own.

The fourth path (pilgrimage journey) begins on the inside and may lead you to a life of service into the world. The first (immersion), second (apprenticeship) and third (project, vision or crises) may begin the development on the outside but as you grow in your exterior capabilities, you must also work to find the internal growth to balance and match it.

The HER breakdown syndrome takes place because the increased responsibility on the outside is not supported by an inner growth. The inner structure cannot support the weight of the building and it gives in at the point of weakness.

What do you do to strengthen your inner journey? How do you internalize the development needed to support your growing responsibility?

Our executive coaching covers the 12 dynamics of growth and wellness. We help you identify what needs critical attention. We help you and challenge you to evolve in balanced way.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jul.09.2009 :: Leadership, Personal Growth :: 1 Comment »

What do Vienna and the Silicon Valley have in common? What do Rembrandt and Warren Buffet have in common? In this KEY we answer these questions plus another one posted on our blog – a truly $64,000 question – one of the biggest questions of all times: How does one grow oneself? We explore the four ways you can grow and offer six questions to help you focus on your growth. Click here to read the KEY: Four Ways To Grow.
© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jul.02.2009 :: Personal Growth, The Key :: No Comments »

Do you go with the flow or do you follow structure?
What do you include and what do you exclude?

Depending on the nature and focus of your endeavor, a different discipline may be required.

Take an honest look at your life: what would help you increase effectiveness and creativity? Do you need more structure? Do you need greater freedom?
To run the 100 meter dash at the Olympics, or to play Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in Carnegie Hall, you have to have total concentration. Concentration is focusing on what you do to the exclusion of all else. Your ability to exclude everything else is essential in certain roles, functions and situations. In fact, your ability to progress and succeed depends on your ability to concentrate – to exclude all other things.

There are other situations and functions where your ability to include and to facilitate engagement and cooperation of all parts is what wins the day. When organizing a family gathering, managing a complex project or producing a large event – your capacity to include all aspects and details and engage every person is the recipe to success.

You may have seen Usain Bolt doing his “dance” before his wins in the 100 and 200 hundred meters at the Beijing Olympics. There were complaints that his behavior was disrespectful. Some thought it was showmanship. Others felt he was just a little strange. Here is what we think – he was keeping himself free, fully present in the moment, deflecting all the nerves and noise, defying the rules, maintaining complete and total relaxation inside. His dance was the act of excluding all else, to be in the moment, in touch with his inner rhythm.

Freedom and structure come together. Chris Rock and Jon Stewart are examples of the complete spontaneity of an in-the-moment comedian. What provides them such freedom? They are able to be free, in the moment, because of their practice and form, an inner structure, a template and cadence they know. To be free you have to have a form, a structure that can contain and support your being in the moment.

In your life and in your work too, you can find a golden point, where what you exclude provides you freedom to include a great many things; where the structure and practice of form gives way to the freedom of spontaneous emergence.

Reflect on these questions:
1. What helps you concentrate and exclude all else?
2. In what aspects of your life and work do you need to bring greater structure? Where do you need to work on your form?
3. In what situations are you able to “go with the flow” and be highly productive? What can you learn from these situations?

To be free, more productive and creative, discover the exclude and include disciplines.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jun.28.2009 :: Personal Growth :: 2 Comments »

The most powerful prayer in the world is the action of what you hope to cause.
Your action becomes the conduit of realization to the object of your prayer.

Find here more about when to pray.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jun.07.2009 :: Personal Growth, Spirituality :: No Comments »

Resilience is the ability to bounce back, pick yourself up and go on.
It is the power to self-heal, renew and to
always be taking the next step forward.
It is in reconnecting to the line of your life and endeavor,
joining it where it has moved to now, not where you left it last.

Resilience has the quality of robustness;
it is the capacity for spontaneous recovery.
The repair, replenishment and recharge
are generated by the will to live and to go on,
and by the determination to take the next step, to proceed forward.
It is the regeneration of all that can be.

Resilience is another name for life itself
and for the power of nature to recreate itself.
It is more than coming back to previous equilibrium, much more.
It is the ability to embrace change and be made new in it,
to seize the new opportunity it brings.
You have seen a toddler moving from crying to smiling to laughing in seconds – that’s resilience.
You’ve seen the people devastated by an earthquake or a Tsunami,
how they pick up and go on – that’s resilience.

You have seen yourself coming to the end of your rope, the end of your strength,
reaching a point of despair; to then find a new start and discover a new day,
to move forward again in a new way and with a new power – that’s resilience.

Resilience knows no end. It has no limits and no boundaries.
It is the fountain of life and living;
the absolution that spring brings to winter;
the unstoppable vine of growth, of love, of beauty and of purpose.
It is the hope passed on from one generation to the next,
and the covenant that there shall always be a new day,
and that you, too, can always make a new start.

Let us resilient on.

*****

Tele-seminar opportunity: The Five Dimensions of Resilience
Discover how to build your resilience and bring renewal to your life and your work. In this rare tele-seminar you will find out why some people thrive when faced with challenge and how you can build the power of resilience. You will identify the stress traps and how to avoid them. We will share with you the ten practices used by innovative leaders to turn setbacks into momentous breakthroughs and explore practical strategies to help you develop the five dimensions of resilience. Join our next tele-seminar “Breakthrough Mindsets for Tough Times” on Friday, June 5th.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jun.01.2009 :: Inspiration, Personal Growth, Tough Times :: No Comments »

Wise leadership is more than being smart. We know what smart leaders do. They formulate and act on SMART goals. SMART Goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Aligned & Attainable
Relevant Results
Timely

In these times SMART Goals are not enough. They have to be coupled with WISE Aims. Aim is a direction you are pursuing. WISE Aims are: Worthy, Inspirational, Sustainable, Evolving

• Worthy – Creates significance, value, meaning and is precious
• Inspirational – Energizes with potential and possibility. Opens your imagination and invites creativity
• Sustainable – will carry you through ups and downs and remain relevant. Does no harm, is renewable and replenishing and generates more than it uses
• Evolving - updatable, growing and upgrading with new opportunities, capabilities and achievements

WISE leadership creates a Worthy and Inspirational vision coupled with a Sustainable and Evolving strategy.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: May.04.2009 :: Leadership, Personal Growth :: No Comments »

In our contest the riddle said: GOI & LIG is a powerful formula for success and for happy living. Assimilate the meaning and essence of GOI & LIG and your energy level, focus, and leadership charisma will double. What is the meaning of these two abbreviations: GOI and LIG

Gerardo Garcia from EDS HP was the first to send the correct answer to the riddle: GOI and LIG – Get Over It & Let It Go

Gerardo is the recipient of the Emerald Keys 10 CDs prize.

Here is a starter list of things we would all be better off if we ‘Let It Go’ and ‘Got Over It’. It’s not always easy. It’s not pleasant, it’s painful at times. But if you get over it and let it go your life will become better, more fulfilling and you would be able to move forward to new opportunities faster.

Get over and Let go of:
1. Rejection of an idea you put forward.
2. Someone that promised to help but did not deliver.
3. Critical feedback about something you said.
4. Being misunderstood.
5. A bid you lost.
6. The promotion you didn’t get.
7. A friend that betrayed you.
8. Stuff that happened not according to your plans.
9. Projections you had that did not materialize.
10. You won the silver and not the gold medal.
11. You did not sell at the top before the correction.
12. Not being sure about what will happen tomorrow.

And then there is more…
13. A delayed flight.
14. The weather.
15. Your age showing in your skin, your face.
16. Taxes that never go away, not until you die.

You get the idea. So much energy is spent on fighting things you can do nothing about. It’s exhausting and takes away from all that you can do and all you are already accomplishing.

Get over it and let it go.

We decided to also honor Guy Shirk, President of Bottom Line Strategies with a complete set of the Emerald Keys for his creative reply:

GOI and LIG – Get Over It, Life Is Good

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Apr.06.2009 :: Personal Growth :: No Comments »

You can win a prize with the value of $200. The first person to send us an email with an answer to this riddle will get a free set of the 10 Emerald Keys CDs + extra bonus.

Here is your riddle: GOI & LIG is a powerful formula for success and for happy living. Assimilate the meaning and essence of GOI & LIG and your energy level, focus, and leadership charisma will double.

What is the meaning of these two abbreviations: GOI and LIG

The first person to email the correct answer will be the winner of $200 prize – the complete Emerald KEYs set. We will publish the winner’s name and the answer here on our blog.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Mar.31.2009 :: Personal Growth :: No Comments »

Nothing your body tells you is inherently wrong or bad. It is merely a sign or a signal of needing attention. Your body is a progress and development laboratory. It is a complex intelligence system, a laboratory that generates signs, alerts, and signals of awareness. It intelligently responds to your environment. You are your own forensic system. Pain, weakness and fatigue are like indicator lights on the dashboard of your car or error messages on your computer. Excitement, ease and energy are confirmations of a full gas tank, adequate levels of essential lubricants and the green light of well maintained automatic systems.

Your body contains your own IGS – Internal Guidance System. Your IGS guides you in life, in business, and in relationships. The art of living is learning to hear, to notice the cues from your IGS and to respond to them. Call it gut. Instinct. Intuition. Knowing. There are different levels serving your safety and your successful realization.

Self-criticism is a sign that your system is experiencing contradiction, disharmony or some form of being out of balance. Too much of something, or too little. Too high or too low. Your IGS is always calibrating and recalibrating. Your external response and conversation is a calibration in process. You sense, attune and calibrate your action. It’s about energetic signals, about what’s optimal. You calibrate the context of what you know, of where you have been, what you have done, who you have been with and where you are going.

Do not be harsh on yourself for experiencing fatigue or anything else. Do not surrender to guilt. Do not give in to shame. Do not diminish your self-esteem. They shut down your internal guidance system. Blunt your inner sensors. Distance you from truth. Always begin by noticing and acknowledging the registration. Do not personalize it. You are not your body. Your body is your learning and discovery laboratory. It is not who you are.

Never begin with the assumption that your body is at fault. In most situations it is not. It is a smart system. You are a compound set of intelligences. On a treasure hunt. To find what you are here to do. How to do it well. What is optimal. You listen. Calibrate. Pause. Learn to trust your inner guidance. And then you move forward. You take action.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Mar.22.2009 :: Intuition, Personal Growth :: No Comments »

To break the sonic speed you must first stop extrapolating. Here is what it looks like.

Don’t get me wrong. Extrapolating can be helpful. You might be able to extrapolate the federal debt in 2012. Extrapolation helps the government calculate social security obligations in 2032. You may calculate the traffic expected on major freeway in 15 years to help you design the freeway systems and the bridges you will need to build.

An Obama presidency could not be extrapolated just a few years ago. Extrapolating is limited, and it can be very limiting. Here are a few important things you were able to do without extrapolating:

1. You moved from crawling to standing and then to walking without extrapolation. These were nonlinear moments.
2. Getting on a bike for the first time was not extrapolated.
3. Learning to swim and even learning multiplication was a feat accomplished without extrapolation.
4. Your first kiss and the first time you made love were non-extrapolative events.
5. Important insights, learning and discovery were all non-extrapolative.

What else can not be extrapolated?

1. Creative ideas
2. Inspiring innovation
3. Turning point decisions
4. Your next breakthrough

Even hurricane paths seem to disagree with the extrapolative computer models. Technical analysis based on cyclicality and price movement fails time and again. The collapse of major firms on Wall Street is a case in point.

You are not an extrapolation machine. Stop thinking this way. A truly open and engaged conversation cannot be extrapolated. Getting promoted to a new role, assuming new responsibility and developing the capabilities to realize its opportunities are non-linear and non-extrapolative. The future is not an extrapolative continuation of the past. It is newly emerging and converging.

To be better ready you must engage new-think processes, consider wild cards, and be prepared to defy the crowds. Agility, versatility, resilience and adaptive thinking must be the coin of your realm.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Feb.05.2009 :: Personal Growth :: No Comments »